Monggo is an Indonesian company that makes dark chocolate in the land of Indonesia. Do you think
Indonesian bar of chocolate would be delicious? Yogyakarta is where this Indonesian chocolate is
fabricated. The Chocolate Republic goes to the heart of the chocolate matter with Doug from Doug's Republic

If you're in Indonesia, join the tourist flock and add
Monggo to your list of life experiences. For those anywhere
else, it's not worth the effort.

Avg
price/gram: USD 0.038

Cocoa %: 58

Size: 40g

You ever just want to like something? When Henry Winkler
came out with his half-cocked show Monte in 1993, I
wanted to embrace it. Henry "The Fonz" Winkler seemed
like such a down-to-earth wholesome guy, you couldn't help
but want any venture he invested in to work out. I've
been to restaurants I felt the same way about.
They donate so many proceeds to charity, offer organic
cuisine, employ disadvantaged staff. But what if the
food isn't all that great? And now comes Chocolate Monggo of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It's billed as
"Belgian chocolate," because the founder and guiding hand is
from Belgium. Guaranteed that if he hailed instead
from a nation without rich chocolate traditions, like
Albania, the bars would not prominently display "Albanian
chocolate" upon them.

The chocolate
was supposedly crafted with European and Javanese traditions
in mind. What Javanese chocolate traditions?
Thierry Detournay, the company's Belgian co-founder, goes on
record as saying that "The people here [in Indonesia] don't
understand too much probably about good quality chocolate."
Although Indonesia is the world's third largest producer of
cocoa beans (13% of the total), Indonesia has no world
famous chocolate manufacturers that I know of. Were
the Indonesian island of Java really so rich in choco
traditions, the locals would understand good
chocolate and it would already be available. Ample
credit to Detournay for the nice-sounding marketing buzz
words.

I tried
Chocolate Monggo several times. The first was during a
visa run to Yogyakarta
in August 2009. I returned to Indonesia, to Bali, in
April 2010, and was again given the chance to sample when my
girlfriend's colleague, the food and beverage director of
her hotel's chain in Bali, gifted me several bars.
It's a brand you really want to like. The company is
tiny, they use no preservatives, the packaging is with recycled
paper, and the product throughout highlights Indonesia.

Chocolate
Monggo's signature bar is their Dark, at 58% cocoa content.
All their bars use this as the base. The Indonesian
cacao used was of decent quality. West Africa
produces 75% of the world's cacao. It's rarer to
get a sample of Asian cacao. Monggo's Dark was
pleasing at the minimal level for higher-end chocolate.
But as I was eating that bar in Yogyakarta, I couldn't
forget that I'd paid nearly USD 4 for it, a price that
surpasses the tag of many luxury chocolate brands in the
West. The cacao was locally sourced, and the factory
employed mostly low-cost Indonesian labor. Economies
of scale are on the low side -- the factory produces just
1,000 packs a month. Still, USD 4 per bar? You
could down a 630 ml bottle of Bintang Beer with a full
Indonesian meal in Jakarta for less than this.

The average Indonesian
agrees with that verdict, too. They're not buying
it. Domestic and international tourists form the
company's main customer base. The verdict: if you're
in Indonesia, join the tourist flock and add Monggo to your
list of life experiences. For those anywhere else,
it's not worth the effort.

Monggo is an Indonesian company that makes dark chocolate in the land of Indonesia. Do you think
Indonesian bar of chocolate would be delicious? Yogyakarta is where this Indonesian chocolate is
fabricated. The Chocolate Republic goes to the heart of the chocolate matter with Doug from Doug's Republic